“These people’s probing intentions couldn’t be more obvious. No wonder the original owner of this body chose to die rather than marry into this family. Marrying into nobility truly isn’t an easy matter.”
Bai Yao analyzed silently, lifting a corner of the bridal sedan curtain as she spoke in a cold tone devoid of any emotion:
“Commander Zhao, when a cultivator woman marries a mortal, the wedding procession is not permitted to display standard-issue weapons. Are you aware that if my Xuan Yu Sect were to kill you alone, it would still be within the rules?”
Zhao Qi’s expression shifted, his hand unconsciously tightening around his sword hilt:
“The Saintess jests. This is a short dagger for self-defense, not a standard-issue long blade. Besides, without the young prince’s gracious decision to marry you, and without my Xia Prince Manor’s support, your sect likely wouldn’t survive the three-year deadline!”
“The dagger is eight inches long with a blade one and a half inches wide. It bears the Zhenbei Division’s fire seal—standard issue without a doubt.”
Bai Yao met his gaze directly, her tone unhurried, a cold smirk curling at the corner of her mouth.
“Moreover, my Xuan Yu Sect disciple would only be killing you alone. What does that have to do with the Xia Prince Manor? Why don’t you go ask the old prince yourself once you’ve become a corpse?”
Zhao Qi was momentarily stunned, but the icy tone in Bai Yao’s voice didn’t sound like an empty bluff. Cold sweat immediately beaded on his forehead.
He stared hard at Bai Yao, as if trying to bore a hole through her red wedding veil.
“The Saintess of Xuan Yu Sect… certainly has a sharp tongue.”
He swung his blade abruptly, the scabbard clattering against the ground.
Though he still seemed resentful, a mortal facing a cultivator had no choice but to back down.
“Since you know you’ve erred, why not let me in immediately?”
Bai Yao was equally ungracious.
After dropping the curtain, her voice grew even colder and brooked no argument.
The sedan bearers and guards exchanged uneasy glances, none daring to make a sound.
Zhao Qi was clearly unwilling to yield, planting his sword and still refusing to step aside.
The atmosphere instantly became tense once more.
But at that very moment, a young man in white robes rode a fine steed up to the bridal sedan and declared in a clear voice:
“Let her in. She is the rightful princess consort of my Xia Prince Manor!”
Everyone was stunned and turned to look.
“The young prince!” the crowd exclaimed in surprise.
Bai Yao raised an eyebrow, inwardly grumbling: ‘Oh ho! The main character himself shows up?’
Zhao Qi had been unwilling to swallow his pride, but hearing his young prince’s words, he had no choice but to grudgingly step aside.
Xiao Yi merely cast a deep glance at Bai Yao, showing no intention of entering the manor.
He then spurred his horse and galloped straight toward the northern army camp.
“That’s… it? He just left? What does that mean?”
Bai Yao truly hadn’t expected the young prince of Xia Prince Manor to have such a peculiar temperament.
Eight bearers lifted the bridal sedan and swiftly carried it through the vermilion-painted gate.
The sedan came to a stop before the hanging-flower gate of the eastern courtyard.
Zhao Qi waved his hand with a cold face, and several coarse-featured maids stepped forward, swiftly lifting the sedan curtain.
“Saintess… ah no, young mistress. The eastern courtyard has been tidied up. The young prince is busy with official duties and won’t be coming to share the bridal chamber tonight. Please rest for now. The tea ceremony will be held tomorrow morning.”
The maid’s voice was dry and flat, not even lifting her eyelids.
Bai Yao stepped out of the sedan on her own.
The red wedding veil had long since been torn off and stuffed into her sleeve.
The fourteen-year-old girl’s frame was frail, draped in a crimson wedding dress, standing in the desolate courtyard like a wild weed that could be transplanted anywhere at will.
“Tea ceremony tomorrow, no bridal chamber tonight…”
Bai Yao muttered these words under her breath.
She had actually been worried that the damn young prince might really come share the bridal chamber and make her—a straight-hearted man in a woman’s body—feel sick to her stomach.
Now she truly hoped the guy wouldn’t come.
With that settled, she turned and looked at a middle-aged man dressed as a steward standing beneath the corridor.
The man wore a gray cloth robe, clutching a string of red sandalwood keys.
His eyes darted away, unwilling to meet hers.
“You’re the manor’s steward?”
Bai Yao said in a flat tone.
“Go fetch the storeroom keys. I want to take inventory of my dowry.”
The steward froze, then hurriedly bowed: “Young mistress, this isn’t proper protocol. The dowry inventory has already been verified. The young prince instructed that the inner household affairs are complex, and since you’ve just arrived, you should settle in first. In a few days, you can slowly…”
Bai Yao cut him off with a cold laugh, raising her hand: “In a few days, I won’t know whether my dowry has entered the manor’s ledgers or someone’s private vault.”
Cold sweat broke out on the steward’s forehead, and he stole a glance at Zhao Qi.
Zhao Qi snorted coldly and turned to leave, clearly unwilling to stir up more trouble after being scolded by Xiao Yi.
Bai Yao stood there with a smile on her face, her fingers gently tracing the jade pendant at her waist.
That was the Saintess seal given by Xuan Yu Sect.
But she knew full well—it was nothing more than a broken stone carved with fake runes.
Still, she had to wield it like a sword of authority.
“If an ordinary mortal woman married into the manor, that would be one thing, but this is Xuan Yu Sect’s dowry…”
Bai Yao’s voice wasn’t loud, yet every word struck like a hammer on the bluestone slabs.
“When mortals embezzle a cultivator’s transcendent treasures, as long as there’s solid evidence, cultivators may ignore the rule of non-interference in mortal affairs and reclaim them by supernatural means. You don’t actually think my Xuan Yu Sect Saintess would be held accountable for accidentally killing a few mortals while reclaiming her own sect’s treasures, do you?”
She paused, her gaze sharp as a blade: “Are you handing over the keys now, or do I go get them myself?”
The steward’s legs went weak, and he dropped to his knees with a thud, the key ring clattering onto the brick floor.
“Young mistress, spare me! This old servant will do it right away, right away.”
Half an hour later, lights blazed in the main hall of the eastern courtyard.
Bai Yao sat at the octagonal table, a thick ledger spread open before her.
The dowry chests were lined up in a row.
Inside weren’t spirit stones or magical artifacts, but entirely silk fabrics, rouge, and face powder.
There was also a box containing roughly a hundred low-grade spirit crystals of extremely poor quality.
“Xuan Yu Sect sure knows how to pinch pennies.”
Bai Yao flipped a page of the ledger without so much as a frown.
“Sending a bunch of mortal fabrics and broken spirit crystals to fend off the Xia Prince Manor’s betrothal gifts—do they really think I’m here for charity? Too bad aside from these hundred spirit crystals, there’s no cultivation resource at all…”
Bai Yao hadn’t come here to audit accounts, of course.
She was a Saintess in name only—she had the Qi Refining Art but no actual cultivation base.
Her real purpose here was to find usable cultivation resources to raise her realm.
“Fine, a hundred low-grade spirit crystals will do… at least enough to break through to the first layer of the Tenth Awakening Realm. If I can reach the second layer, even better…”
With no other choice, Bai Yao stashed away the hundred spirit crystals and slowly made her way back to the small eastern courtyard residence.
Before long, light footsteps sounded outside the courtyard gate.
A maid in a pink ruqun walked in carrying a tray.
On the tray sat an exquisite set of white porcelain tea wares and a packet of tea leaves wrapped in red paper.
“Young mistress…”
The maid curtsied with a beaming smile.
“This is a wedding gift sent by the young prince’s confidante, Saintess Liu Linglin of the Hehuan Sect. She says it’s spiritual tea tribute from Ximo Yuanzhou, able to calm the mind and nourish the spirit. The young prince said you must try it.”
Bai Yao had been recalling the techniques of the Qi Refining Art, but she raised her eyes and let them fall on the red paper packet.
The packaging was exquisite, the fragrance intoxicating—but hidden within that fragrance was a faint trace of salty, fishy odor.
“Hehuan Powder… the potent aphrodisiac circulated by the Hehuan Sect, the kind of drug certain people love to slip to female cultivators when they’re gathering essence. Even the most chaste and virtuous girl would instantly turn into a wanton wooden doll within a moment… And the effect lasts three days and three nights before it fades.”
Relying on the original owner’s memories, Bai Yao immediately recognized what this was.
After all, the Xuan Yu Sect had fallen so far that female disciples had been dosed with this drug before.
And the sight of that female disciple’s drug-addled wooden-doll appearance had deeply frightened the inexperienced young girl she once was.
Hehuan Sect, Liu Linglin…
Claiming to be the young prince’s confidante—when I’m the lawfully wedded princess consort Xiao Yi married with full ceremony?
Isn’t telling me this just implying the two of them are adulterers?
In other words, the Hehuan Sect clearly has quite a few planted agents within the Xia Prince Manor.
“Set it down.”
Bai Yao’s voice was calm.
“Thank Saintess Liu for me. I’ll remember this kindness.”
The maid’s eyes lit up—she hadn’t expected this young Saintess mistress to be so easy to fool.
She hurriedly set the tray on the table, curtsied, turned, and quickly retreated.
Bai Yao sighed and paced back and forth before the bed: “I can’t be bothered with whether Xiao Yi comes back tonight. I just hope these hundred poor-quality low-grade spirit crystals give me a bit more confidence in my words. As for this packet…”
Bai Yao began planning her cultivation ahead, as well as her strategy for surviving manor life.
“In other words… the real purpose of this packet is to turn me into a wooden doll. Even if I just leave it here, Liu Linglin could insist she sent ordinary tea—yet Hehuan Powder gets found in it… According to the ancestral court’s rules, if I’m found guilty of moral failings and breaching palace regulations just days after marriage, I could be stripped of my status as legitimate wife… Does Liu Linglin want to be the legitimate wife that badly? A demon woman from the Hehuan Sect—if she isn’t coveting the [Violet Yang Grand Harmony Art], then she’s eyeing entry into the [Cangjie Grotto-Heaven]. Rumors say the cultivation resources there are richer than oil. And beyond that, there’s probably something else…”
Bai Yao watched the night slowly fall beyond the window, and a bold idea immediately surfaced in her mind.
A mischievous grin spread across her face, and she chuckled:
“Leaving this here isn’t wise. Might as well turn the tables and let the entire manor witness what a demonic pill descending upon the world looks like.”
She summoned another maid, then pointed at the “Ximo tribute tea” on the table and spoke in a gentle, soft voice:
“This is the famed Ximo tea gifted by Saintess Liu of the Hehuan Sect. It hasn’t been opened yet. Today is my wedding day, and everyone must be tired. Take this whole packet to the kitchen and brew it all. Tell everyone I’m treating every servant in the manor to a cup of fine Ximo tea as a token of my gratitude.”